Three-dimensional (3D) display devices, such as television sets, are becoming increasingly popular, and so it is expected that demand for 3D multimedia content delivery by data distribution or access networks will steadily increase. At the same time, since 3D content typically may use more bandwidth than two-dimensional (2D) content, it is expected that the transmission of additional 3D content will present new challenges in balancing network bandwidth requirements with content quality.
Moreover, since the majority of consumer devices are not yet capable of consuming 3D content, and because the users of such devices demand high-quality 2D video, the networks find themselves needing to send both the 2D and 3D versions of the content to satisfy both types of devices. Thus, the addition of 3D content to an existing collection of 2D content typically may be expected to add significant bandwidth requirements to the network to serve a subset of consumer devices that are 3D-capable.